Jimmy Kimmel will return to the Oscar stage once again.
The ABC late night host has signed on to host the 96th Academy Awards, marking his fourth time in the role. The appointment is hardly surprising, of course, as Kimmel has decades of live TV experience and a longstanding relationship with Disney.
“I always dreamed of hosting the Oscars exactly four times,” joked Kimmel.
His announcement follows the mid-October news that the Academy set a producing team, a returning director and a first-time showrunner in Raj Kapoor, a live TV and go-to Las Vegas residency producer, who’s worked on the Academy Awards telecast for the last seven years. Kimmel’s wife and Jimmy Kimmel Live co-head writer Molly McNearney is also an executive producer for the telecast.
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“We are thrilled about Jimmy returning to host and Molly returning as executive producer for the Oscars. They share our love of movies and our commitment to producing a dynamic and entertaining show for our global audience,” said Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy President Janet Yang in a joint statement. “We are deeply grateful to Jimmy, Molly and their teams for their incredible creativity and partnership and for going on this ride with us again.”
Though there were rumblings about a potential Oscar date move during the darker days of Hollywood’s dual strikes, such a thing is no longer necessary and the town’s top talent is already back in full campaign mode. Many have been scrambling to make up for lost time. In fact, Kimmel’s ABC show is poised to benefit from the parade of A-listers hungry to promote this year’s Oscar hopefuls.
Jimmy Kimmel Live! was off the air for the duration of the writers strike, though Kimmel himself maintained a presence through his popular “Strike Force Five” podcast with his fellow late night hosts. Proceeds from the latter went to the shows’ out-of-work staffs. Kimmel revealed on one of the episodes that he had been “very intent on retiring” prior to the strike, but he formally re-upped with Disney last year and his ABC show will continue through season 23.
The 96th Oscars will air live on ABC, Sunday, March 10, 2024, from the Dolby Theatre.
